Attachment

‘Attachment’ is a theory developed by psychologists to explain how a child interacts with the adults looking after him or her. If a child has a healthy attachment, this means the child can be confident that the adults will respond to the child’s needs, for example if they are hungry, tired or frightened, the adult caregiver will respond to meet their needs or reassure and comfort them.

This gives the child confidence to explore their environment and develop a good sense of self-esteem. This will help the child grow up to be a happy and functioning adult.

Videos

VIDEO Judy Furnivall of CELCIS (Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland) describes the meaning of ‘attachment’ in this video: